...At one point, José was telling me how humanity would begin to voluntarily take down the post industrial “technosphere” as we approached 2012, returning the planet to a pristine garden, preferring to live in small groups, and engaging in telepathic ceremonies. I argued that this seemed impossible—that we were headed for wars and ecocide, not a return to the garden.

“My job as a visionary is to envision the best possible outcome for humanity,” he explained. “If I don’t do it, who will?” This seemed shockingly sensible to me. Most people, most of the time, allow their conceptions of what is possible to be determined by the mass culture that surrounds them. My psychedelic experiences had revealed that our social constructs were temporary artifices, and they could be reimagined and reinvented as soon as enough of us decided to take the matter into our own hands. I realised that this could only happen if courageous individuals demanded what seemed impossible in the context of their time.

Daniel Pinchbeck, from 2012 Biography of a Time Traveler: The Journey of José Arguellesby Stephanie South